“I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:12 NIV
“The pilot has asked us to prepare for an emergency landing and evacuation. Headphones out, phones off. Everyone needs to listen to everything that I am about to say. This is not a drill. We have fifteen minutes.”
Externally, I reassured the passenger next to me that we were going to be ok.
Internally, my heart was pounding.
Fifteen minutes.
…
Over the last few months, one of the many things that God and I have been talking through is the use of time… and even more so, the use of words.
In the past, I have had the opportunity to walk through at least three months seasons with other people. With each travel nursing assignment, I could ‘settle’ into the surrounding community a little bit and I could do life with others for that span of time. I was able to get to know them and they were able to get to know me. We got to hike and bike and camp and sip coffee together. We had time to share in small talk and to dive into deeper conversations. We had time to build a relationship. All the while, my hope was that God’s light would shine through our interactions and more often than not, within those three months, I was able to share about my faith in Jesus with words – sometimes all throughout the three months and other times, just once.
This extended time created space for me to meet others where they were in their journey. It allowed me to be me and for them to be them. It was comfortable and it gave me a glimpse of what it was like to “do life” alongside others. It was also such a blessing for me to watch the way that God would work over time in a way that was so personal to each individual. It was simply a fun season, and I enjoyed it so much that I had convinced myself that it was part of the way that God created me. I was a “ seasonal alongsider”. Not a “brief path crosser” or a “lifer”. I was made to shine the light of the Lord in these seasons that were longer than a few days, but not much more than a few months… or so I thought.
My career as a travel nurse came to an end and with the beginning of my new job, it quickly became clear that my time primarily as a “seasonal alongsider” did too. And perhaps more shocking than that, this new season has opened the door to opportunities of being a “brief path crosser” and somewhat of a “lifer” all in the same season!
Now eight months into a full-time job, and living in the same place for that time, I am getting the opportunity to do life with others for more than three months at a time. I get to have weekly lunch dates with the same people. I get to leave on a trip and come back to the same community. I get the opportunity to follow up on people’s lives with frequency and to hear the little updates over the weekend, rather than the big updates after not having a phone call in months due to the busyness of life! As simple as it sounds, I get to come face to face with friends who know me, rather than just hearing their voices on the phone (which I am incredibly grateful for too, for those friends and Sisters who are far away). While navigating this new dynamic in doing a longer season of life with others has been different, it’s actually my new role as a “brief path crosser” that has really challenged me.
The opportunity to build trust, rapport, and relationship with someone has always been important to me, especially once I began following Christ and recognized interactions with others as primary opportunities to shine the light and the love of Christ. Even as my desire to share Christ has grown over the past few years, my style has never been that of what could be known as a “Bible thumper”. Perhaps shaped by my three month seasons, I genuinely enjoy getting to know people, listening to their story, and allowing the Lord to seep through our conversation over time, utilizing the opportunities to dive deeper as led by the Lord.
In my current adventure of life, it is common for me to cross paths with others for less than forty-eight hours, and sometimes even under twenty-four hours. On top of this short time of physical exposure, it has also become quite common for me to communicate through a translator, bringing about even less time for direct interaction and really limiting the conversation that takes place outside of that which is focused on work.
With limited hours, minutes, and sometimes even words, God has asked me two questions over and over again; not in a way of expecting an answer, but of causing me to stop and consider the challenge that He is presenting…
How are you going to use your time? How are you going to use your words?
What a challenge this has been to my heart.
“You have a one hour meeting with this group of people. How will you encourage their hearts?”
“You have thirty minutes to have a coffee with this women. Will your words glorify me?”
“You have one sentence to speak before your translator leaves. What will you say?”
My friends. The reality is that none of us are simply “seasonal alongsiders”, “lifers”, or “brief path crossers”. Every one of us is all three of these things, every single day. We all have people that we are blessed to do life with, from near and far. We all have people who have been and will only be in our lives for a season. And we all cross paths of others every single day. God is always orchestrating divine appointments.
So I want to extend these same questions to you. I want to invite you into this challenge with me.
How are you going to use your time today and in the days ahead?
How are you going to use your words in the interactions that the Lord gives you this week?
As children of God, our purpose above all things is to glorify the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul states, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (NIV).
Similarly, in 1 Peter 4:11 Peters says, “If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen” (NIV).
And in Psalm 150:6 we read, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD” (NIV).
May our time, our actions, our words, and every breath that we take glorify the Lord, that He may be exalted in the dark and broken world around us. Let us recognize the opportunities that the Lord lays before us to exalt His Mighty Name each day.
It is not every day that you hear that you might have just 15 minutes left to live, and realistically, most of us won’t get a warning before our last breaths… but if you did, would you be able to look back from that space in time and see that you’ve fully utilized the opportunities that you’ve been given to function in the Body of Christ and to glorify the Lord?
And what about those last fifteen minutes?
I will be honest. That was the first time that I’ve tangibly faced the possibility of death in that way. And yes, my heart was pounding in the moments that followed that announcement. But as I took in what was happening, there was so much peace. First and foremost, there was peace in knowing that if the plane were to crash and I were not to survive, I would be entering into the presence of the Lord my God. Praise the Lord for the assurance that He gives those who have come to know Him as Lord of their lives, and thus have been marked by Holy Spirit to enter into eternity with Him!
In those moments, there was also peace in briefly looking back on my recent life and knowing that I had lived it in pursuit of Him. I had given Him my all – not perfectly, but as best as I could in this battle with the flesh. In fact, it has been in these past few months that I feel like I have been hearing God’s voice and direction more clearly than ever. So much so, that I have often been describing this season as “fun” because I get to sit back and watch God work.
Though my circumstances had changed, God’s whisper remained the same as His two questions resurfaced in the midst of my peace on the plane.
“My daughter, you have fifteen minutes.
What are you going to do with your time?
How are you going to use your words?”
Only the Lord knows what happened in the hearts of those on the plane that night, but what I do know is that my last fifteen minutes on the the plane were walked in obedience to Him, with a heart seeking to glorify His great Name above all else.
The other thing that I know is that it is the Lord who has given myself and every other passenger on that plane more time. It is Him who has granted us more time on this earth to know Him, to walk with Him, to become more like Him, and to glorify Him with our lives. It is the Lord who has given us more time to speak more words, that I pray, will be glorying to Him.
And so the questions remain, what will we do with our time? How will we use our words?
Oh Lord my God, thank you for the gift of life. Father, thank you for the days that you give us to walk with you and for the many ways that you allow us to participate in the glorification of your Name. You, Lord, are the God of creation, yet you delight in orchestrating the smallest of details in our daily lives. Father, I ask that you would open my eyes to the opportunities that you place before me and that you would tune my ears to your voice. Whether I have a lifetime, a three months season, two days, two hours, or two sentences, help me to utilize it all for your glory that when my last fifteen minutes on this earth does come, I can be at peace in knowing that I have pursued you down to my last breath. In Jesus Name. Amen.
With so much love,
Your Sister in Christ
